| Pronouns | he/him |
| Geo | Sheffield, UK |
Minor quest for the last little while has been to capture a weather satellite image.
This is fairly easy to do, but I decided I might as well go for the harder option and I built this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6436342 to try for the higher quality downlinks.
With some help in debugging my first attempt, this picture happened.
Meteor M2-4 HRPT, near overhead pass.
This is a portable light weight handheld HRPT receiving antenna of weather satellite imagery. It can also be used on a motorized satellite tracker.Materials needed:-A metallic conductive mesh, I used aluminum mosquito net.-About 1.5m of 6mm² copper wire-Sheet metal to cut a 133mm circular ground plane-2mm self tapping flat head screws-A flange mount SMA male connector-2 M8 bolts-2 M8 washers-4 M8 nutsIf you're new to HRPT, a 1.7GHz SAW LNA such as the Sawbird+ GOES is absolutely necessary.Update: Added an optional tripod accessory for the antenna, you'll need a 1/4" nutUpdate:-There was an error in the manual, if you're using the tool to wind the coil you should turn the tool clockwise, not counter-clockwise.-New coil winder tool, it turns out since the wire is thick after winding the coil it will get too large making it difficult to wind into the helix support. So now the winder is 52mm diameter instead of 56 which should make the finished coil the right size (56mm), also rounded the edges so it's easier on the hand.The helix support is reenforced to avoid breakage, with the new tool it shouldn't force the support as much anyway.
Did my first hot plate SMD soldering and assembled the first KiCAD designed PCB I’ve made (based on someone else’s work)
Hot plate is much easier for full assembly than hot air.
Now I own two looms, and one of them is very tiny.
Bought a cheap darning loom after I made the mistake of clambering around in the hedge trying to fix my antenna (#JustAmateurRadioProblems) while wearing a knit jumper.
Now my jumper doesn’t have a hole in it anymore, and I need to find more things to darn!
I appear to have warped my loom.
Usually I’d say something ironic about not knowing about whether the words were right, but I genuinely don’t know this time!
It’s pretty fun so far though!
More to come when I've slept and tried to work out the bugs in my data logging, but:
* 25km altitude
* 40km linear travel
* 1:50 flight time
* Prediction vs Actual recovery location delta of about 5km.
Many, many very nice photos.
I took my balloon tracking cyberdeck to EMF.
Little bit of time arguing with the WiFi, but got it working eventually and tracked myself wandering around the whole camp.
Lots of lovely conversations about what it is. One of the best things about EMF is people being curious about things and just saying ‘hey, that’s interesting, what is it?’
Won’t lie, it was nice for people to be excited about something I built as a bit of a joke.
V2 is in the planning stages. This one might get excessive.
> There was some scope creep.
Pretty much sums it up, I built a cyberdeck for tracking balloons.
https://blog.howrandom.net/post/building-a-balloon-tracking-cyberdeck/
@tom I hope the NASA colour are in honour of the shuttle.
(Look, I know one thing about looms so if I see a pun I’m going to take it)
Tamonten
BlueStarling
Tindra